


Candle on the Water

by suecsit



Category: Cobra Kai, soulmates au - Fandom
Genre: Deleted Scene, Fanfiction of Fanfiction, M/M, Soulmates, mood piece, theempressar, written with permission
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-22
Updated: 2018-09-22
Packaged: 2019-07-15 14:34:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,167
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16065149
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/suecsit/pseuds/suecsit
Summary: Daniel tries something new to take care of his ghost problem.





	Candle on the Water

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TheEmpressAR](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheEmpressAR/gifts).



> This scene is one that takes place between Chapters 6 and 7 of “Soulmates” by TheEmpressar. Any mistakes in continuity or tone are completely mine. She has just been generous enough to let me borrow her sandbox for a short time. 
> 
> Thanks to @thatsweetbobbyface/@rynnsama for making screen shots of the Obon ceremony in Karate Kid 2.

“Candle on the Water” 

 

Daniel was aware of how stupid the idea was. And how much of an imposter he was. He had bought a lantern at a Bed, Bath, and Beyond in Malibu because he couldn’t find anything else that resembled the lights on the water in Okinawa. What he had in the plastic shopping bag looked like something a housewife who practiced yoga would buy on impulse because she wanted to “treat herself” at the end of the week. It didn’t look like the fragile, paper lamp that Kumiko had handed to him years ago when his mentor’s father had passed away. 

It was a lamp that was supposed to send dead souls back to where they came from.

The more time he spent at the dealership and at home, the more he felt watched and trapped. One thing he hadn’t tried was dramatically changing his surroundings. He had his mind set on a quick trip to the beach, one that would involve setting the lantern on the waves, pushing it away from him as far as he could, and going back home to his family where no ghosts hid behind doors or crept inside his private dreams. 

Maybe, he dared to think, he’d actually be free. His mind betrayed him, though. It flashed back to the damning conversation:  
“How the….I thought you were attached to the house…you know…like couldn’t leave the area…don’t ghosts do that?”  
“Obviously, I’m attached to you…dumbass.”  
Well, so what? Ghosts weren’t always right, he muttered to himself. 

If someone were kind they’d say Daniel was indulging in superstition. If someone were less tolerant, they’d say that Daniel had once again bastardized Eastern culture and made it a commodity to be manipulated rather than honored in the original way it was intended. Ever since the marketing team at Larusso Auto had called the bonsai a gimmick, he’d been made painfully aware of how shallow his understanding of Japanese culture truly was. And how tone deaf he could really be.

The lighting of lanterns on water was supposed to be a celebration of one’s ancestors. Not some ridiculous ploy to cure a haunting. 

All he knew was that the night he and the villagers had placed their lights on the sea, he could feel something drifting…leaving. Like Miyagi’s father really was being let go. Like the ceremony protected all of them from falling back into that weird vortex between the living and the dead. The vortex that had threatened to swallow Mr. Miyagi until Daniel found the courage to put his arm around the man and look out over the water. 

The one that was threatening to swallow Daniel now. 

Grief and guilt made this weird space between the spirit world and the material world. And Daniel knew he was already spending way too much time in that no man’s land. 

And Johnny wanted him there.

That was the horror of it all. His former rival wanted something that he just couldn’t give, and he was scared to refuse him. Scared for the first time since high school. Ok, maybe that wasn’t completely honest. 

The truth was he’d been petrified of Johnny when Johnny threw him against the wall the night he found Robby in the dojo. But his fear had come from somewhere else. He had known that night just how close Johnny and he could be if given the space and time to talk, mock, chide, and reminisce. Far back in his head he heard, like an echo, the word flirt, and he shook his head as if still carrying Johnny with him. 

And then that moment, that wonderful idea of sparring as friends, something he’d secretly wanted but would never admit, was ruined, and Robby became Johnny’s son, and Johnny became the enemy again. For just a moment Daniel imagined that he would become much more. The idea of that happening on the mat was an image he became obsessed with. Even now. If only ghosts could deliver successful punches and round kicks when you wanted them to. 

The truth was that the entire ride to the beach had been quiet. Daniel left the car in the public access beside the very beach that he and Johnny had met decades ago. He took his lantern, his lighter, and his shoes, and he headed to the water, where the ocean was thankfully calmer than usual. 

When he reached the water’s edge, he felt the salt and the sand on his toes, the feeling of sinking. His feet were sticking inside the earth rather than on top of it until he stepped farther out into the ocean where the bottom leveled out to reveal a more packed sediment. His pant legs now wet up to his knees, he looked out and saw the lights from a small boat that bobbed on the water past the curvature of the shore. The final light from sunset lingered in purple and pink near the horizon’s edge.

He stood there and watched the boat move around the curve and then fade from his view.

When he took out his lighter, he felt the power that came from simply rolling a thumb against cheap metal and seeing a flame appear. He held the lantern up to light the interior.

It was beautiful when he did it. At night, without the glaring fluorescent lights of the store, the trinket looked like the kind of lantern people used to guide them in fairy tales, like the kind the hero carried into the evil forest just before meeting the witch.

Unfortunately, as soon as he bent down to leave it on the water’s surface, the light immediately blew out. 

Daniel looked around. No real wind except a small breeze. Not too many waves. He lit the object again.

The flame went out again. This happened three more times.

Daniel stood up straight and looked around. He sighed. He shook the plastic container of lighter fluid and released the pressure again. When the flame leaped out it revealed a face, and Daniel lost his balance and fell backward into the water in fright.

“And this is why you can’t have nice things,” the voice chided. 

The lantern tumbled out of his hand and started to move in the current. In a moment he couldn’t see to retrieve it. The lighter also fell out of his hand. 

He could see Johnny though. The light from the ghost’s profile made the water look bioluminescent. 

They stared at one another, not speaking. In the silence, the creeping presence at the edge of his mind, Daniel felt more than heard Johnny taking responsibility for his failed experiment. Anger rose inside him and then settled down, a flood of lava that heated and then cooled when he accepted his fate. 

Daniel turned away from him and walked, or splashed, right out of the ocean. His dark purple parka and navy sweat pants making him black in the night, with water dripping from everywhere. He wore these clothes to bring back Miyagi when he set up the dojo. He had worn them now to let Johnny go. Or so he told himself.

He stumbled up the incline in sand and fell on to the beach, his head looking up at the stars. Sand clinging to every part of him. Tears were forming in his eyes. Nothing he did would work. He was lost here. Somewhere between life and death. 

With him.

He sensed Johnny lying down next to him, a chilled presence beside his already chilled wet clothes. It comforted him, and he hated that. His teeth chattered, but he didn’t want it to stop. The warmth would come from somewhere, wouldn’t it?

Johnny sat up and Daniel could feel him reaching out, could feel him touch the wet clothes and turn them to ice. He probably meant to help but was making it worse. Daniel had no warmth to offer him.

Daniel could feel a light touch on his cheek. He sucked in air and froze where he lay. He was afraid to move. Something about Johnny being here, under the stars, no walls, no barriers…it was unbearable. Like both of them would get lost out here and no one would ever find them. 

What made him so frightened was that he wanted that. 

He tried to pull away but felt resistance. He tried to sit up but pressure kept him down, not restraining him necessarily but lying atop him like a weighted blanket. He surrendered and fell back into the sand.

“It wasn’t my time,” Johnny said. 

“How do you know?”

“I just know.” The hand grazed his face again. “I’ll tell you soon. I just can’t speak it yet.”

“But you can do almost everything else,” Daniel said softly, failing to disguise his awe. He was shutting his eyes at the feel of invisible fingertips moving across his profile, dipping lower near the pulse point. His teeth still chattered.

“Don’t overestimate me. I would warm you up if I could, but I can’t.”

“You just want me to suffer,” Daniel managed to get out.

“That too,” Johnny admitted. “You suffered here before on this beach because of me. You hid your face in the sand and told everyone to leave you alone.”

Daniel tried hard not to think it, but there was nowhere to hide his thoughts anymore.

“You still want me to leave you alone, I know. But I can’t. Wish I could.”

“Stop lying.”

“Ok, so I don’t wish it. I’m glad your lame ass candle trick didn’t work. Let me guess…some weird ritual you learned from your teacher.”

“Right. Because THAT’s what’s weird right now.”

Johnny chuckled. Daniel heard it in his head and around his body and in his blood. The voice was becoming part of him.

“Sorry I messed up your evening,” Johnny said. “What does the light do anyway?”

Daniel didn’t answer at first. He kept his eyes closed and heard the waves building in strength. The touch on his face paused, as if calculating where it might move next.  
He held his breath. The phantom fingers then moved to the scalp, teasing the strands near his ear, his temple. “It’s supposed to let you go,” he finally admitted.

“Ouch.”

“Shut up.”

More laughter. 

“You miss him?”

“Who?”

“Your teacher.”

Daniel sat up, this time unimpeded. “Why, do you know something?”

“Larusso, calm down. I didn’t have a beer with the guy at the local ghost bar. I’m just making conversation.”

Daniel looked out at the sea. “Sure, I miss him. More than ever, now.”

“Why now?”

“Because he’d know what to do. He always did.”

Johnny didn’t respond. 

“Johnny…” Daniel started.

“Yeah?”

“What…” he couldn’t the words out at first. “What do you want from me? Is it just about Kreese?”

“What do you think?”

“Don’t play games.”

“I already told you. It’s about what you want. I felt it.”

“Why should I believe you?”

Daniel felt breath on his neck. He bowed his head. Johnny moved like a scarf, wrapping around his neck, only this time, somehow, he managed to emanate heat. Or maybe Daniel was finally warming up. He didn’t know. All he could do was whimper slightly, his body leaning into what should have been a corporeal form.

“That’s not the question you really want to ask,” Johnny whispered. “You already believe me. You’re just trying to punish yourself for it.”

Daniel shook his head against the invisible shoulder. “Stop reading my thoughts.”

“I don’t have to.”

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the lantern. It had been carried by the current back to the shoreline. It laid still as the tide rose around it. 

His gaze moved, and Johnny’s followed. 

“Your light’s still there,” Johnny observed. “Want me to get it for you?”

Daniel didn’t answer. He felt invisible hands lift his chin to meet nonexistent eyes. “I want to hear you say it,” Johnny said.

“Please.”

“Say it.” The hands held his face firmly, almost roughly. Daniel tried to move away, but it was useless. “Want me to get it for you?”

“No.”

He felt the smile inside his head. “I didn’t think so.”

“You’re still an asshole.”

“I know.”

Daniel must have drifted off to sleep. When he woke, the sky was changing color again. He thought maybe he imagined it all until he saw the lantern sitting just on the other side of him. It was dry now, and the lighter was lying neatly on top.

He stood up, shaking the sand out of his hair and clothes. He stretched, bending his body back to rid himself of the crick in his neck. It was quiet, both outside and inside him. Johnny was giving him space. 

Daniel walked slowly back to his car, feeling his cell phone vibrate in his pocket. People were worried. They should be. 

The lantern stayed on the beach, right where they left it.


End file.
